


what's another night on mars?

by genesis_frog



Category: One Piece
Genre: (accidentally), 5+1 Things, Aromantic, Aromantic Asexual Monkey D. Luffy, Aromantic Monkey D. Luffy, Future Fic, Gen, Marriage, Nakamaship, Pirate King Monkey D. Luffy, Platonic Romance, Post-Series, Queerplatonic Relationships, Weddings, mild swearing thanks to sanji, romance repulsion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-08-20 06:53:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16551020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genesis_frog/pseuds/genesis_frog
Summary: “Marriage, to many, is a sacred, romantic vow. A promise between lovers to live together and die together. Whoever said that that love had to be romantic? There are so many kinds of love that exist, and surely, can’t the bond between friends be celebrated eternally?”Luffy has An Idea, or: Five Times the Straw Hats Discussed Getting Married and the One Time They Actually Did





	what's another night on mars?

i.

“I don’t ever want to get married,” Luffy declares, a firm frown etching his features.

“Really, never?” Usopp asks, surprised. “Why?”

The two had previously been rolling around on the Sunny’s grass while Robin enjoyed tea and a novel. It’s a quiet day, a rare one; Zoro must be asleep, Chopper studying, Sanji and Nami and Franky working. The quiet had been interrupted by some sort of squeal from Sanji’s direction. It sounded a lot like loud fawning over Nami, which started Luffy on thoughts of romance.

“It’s just so… gross,” Luffy says to Usopp, like he’s talking about a certain bar’s cherry pie, or barf, or something actually gross. “Kissing, and all that boring gross mushy stuff, and then you’re not allowed to go on adventures anymore! I can’t do that, I’m the Pirate King!”

“I dunno, I kinda like _some_ of the gross mushy stuff,” Usopp muses. Luffy grumbles.

“That’s fine, I just think it’s weird! I don’t _get_ it,” Luffy says a bit more emphatically, throwing his arms out to his sides. “How people just fall apart over other people, and then they want to do and say all this weird stuff. Romance. Weird.” He shivers. “It makes me feel gross inside my tummy.”

“It’s weird, I got it,” Usopp deadpans from where he is sprawled in the lawn. Robin closes her book.

“Anyway, I don’t wanna hafta be trapped on an island somewhere that’s boring, or even somewhere that’s interesting, because it’ll eventually get boring, and I’m the freest man on the seas now and I don’t ever have to listen to nobody. So I’m not ever gonna get married.”

Robin sets down her teacup. “Luffy, marriage is viewed many different ways throughout the world,” she offers. “Would you like to hear about some?”

Luffy grumbles petulantly, because the topic is gross but he loves Robin, so he says “sure”. She blooms her way closer, so she’s sitting on the grass beside them, her legs folded underneath her.

“In the West Blue, marriage is steeped in tradition,” she begins. “It’s all very formal. It used to be that weddings were arranged, but nowadays that’s not in fashion. However, most couples still don’t know each other well when they’re married, and may even be virtually strangers. All the guests dress up in fancy clothes, and have to be very polite. You would absolutely hate a West Blue wedding.”

“I _would!_ ” Luffy declares. “That sounds so boring!” Usopp nods his agreement.

“In the South Blue, weddings are parties, with lots of music, food, and games. The newlyweds are usually very affectionate with each other before and after. They aren’t very strict about the number of people getting married, either, and sometimes they wed whole groups of lovers together. And the East Blue isn’t very big on weddings at all; they tend to be small but natural and romantic, from what I understand.”

Usopp nods. “There were one or two weddings in my village, I remember. They were fun, but kinda hard to sit through. I _was_ a kid though.”

“This isn’t helping, these sound dumb,” Luffy complains. Robin considers this.

“There’s a tribe in the North Blue that views marriage as something special. They’re a clan of very strong warriors who believe that when two souls are bound in marriage, they become stronger and blessed by their gods. Many groups of sailors, criminal or otherwise, that hail from there are lead by married couples who adventure together.”

Luffy perks up at this. “Married people adventure together?” he asks. “So then, what’s the point of getting married in the first place?”

“It’s ‘cause people love each other,” Usopp says matter-of-factly. Robin smiles.

“Yes, it’s a manner of expressing devotion,” she explains. “They’re exchanging a promise to stay together always, to be separated only by death. Really, it’s a sweet notion. But the old North Blue tradition has long included marriages of life partnerships that existed without romance. Platonic marriage, if you will. Whoever said marriage had to be romantic?”

Luffy goes still. He studies Usopp’s face, and then Robin’s.

“Hey,” he says. “Let’s get married.”

A moment passes.

“Huh?” Usopp asks, his eyes as round as dinner plates. Even Robin seems surprised: she draws back and puts a hand on her chest.

“You heard me. Let’s get married,” Luffy repeats. “Robin just said married people go on adventures and promise each other to never leave each other behind, right? And friends can get married and you’re stuck with me forever! So let’s get married.”

Usopp and Robin share a look to gauge how the other feels, and they communicate an understanding nonverbally. Usopp takes one of Luffy’s hands, and Robin takes the other.

“I’ll marry you,” Robin says quietly. She smiles, then, a big beaming smile that comes out only rarely.

Usopp grins. “Me too. I like the sound of it,” he adds. “A promise to never be apart.” Usopp squeezes Luffy’s hand, who’s smiling so, so wide.

“No takebacks!” Luffy explodes out of their little moment with a yell, throwing his arms into the air.

“Luffy--?” Usopp calls out. Robin simply laughs.

 

ii.

“We’re getting married,” Luffy announces that night over dinner.

“Who is?” Chopper asks. “I’ve never been to a wedding before! Well,” he amends, reconsidering, “not a good one, anyway.”

“Me ‘n Robin ‘n Usopp, and anyone else who wants in.” Luffy shoves a handful of mashed potatoes into his mouth. Nami gives him a look and hands him a fork, which Luffy pointedly ignores in favor of scooping an even larger handful of potatoes into his face.

“You and _Robin--?!_ ” Sanji exclaims, launching up out of the kitchen where he’d been happily observing mealtime. “Marriage?! Robin!? You????” He turns desperately to Robin. “Say it’s not true!”

“It’s true,” Robin confirms. She forks pasta into her mouth. “He asked and I said yes.”

“I’m being serious,” Luffy whines. His fingers are covered in mashed potato. “Robin said married people can go on adventures and promise to be together forever. Which sounds like us, so I want to marry all of you! I gotta make sure you all know you’re stuck with me somehow! So marry me!”

Franky laughs, but it’s good-natured. “Sure!” he declares and slaps Luffy on the back. Luffy accidentally spits out a glob of potato, which earns him a glare from Zoro and flung noodle to the nose from Usopp. He eats the noodle with a stretch of his tongue.

“You’re seriously going along with this, Franky?” Nami looks skeptical, or maybe embarrassed, or both.

“Why not? Could be fun.” Franky shrugs completely unapologetically.

“Yay!” Luffy cheers. “Chopper, how about you?”

“Of course!” Chopper squeaks back. “What would our wedding be like? Where would it be?”

“I’m not opposed,” Jinbe adds in.

“I rather like the idea myself!” Brook sings from his spot at the table.

Sanji, Nami, and Zoro still have not spoken. Sanji and Nami look a little sour, like they ate a lemon whole, but Zoro simply continues his meal in peace.

Usopp leans across the table to Nami (nearest target, easiest to wear down, he knows her better). “C’mon, Nami, trust me, this is us, this is Luffy, this won’t be whatever you’re imagining,” he wheedles. She sighs.

“If this is a disaster, you owe me big time,” she warns, and the rest of the group cheer for her.

“That just leaves --”

Sanji cuts Luffy off. “I’ll do it, because Nami and Robin are both doing it,” he declares over-theatrically. “But only because of that! I’m definitely not marrying you shitty morons.”

Luffy laughs. “Thanks, Sanji,” he says, a little too sincerely.

“Are you not doing it, Zoro?” Brook asks. The other swordsman has been quiet throughout the conversation, and Brook could easily imagine Zoro not wanting to participate.

Zoro, for his part, gulps down the last of his drink and says: “Course I am.”

And with that, the Straw Hats had all decided: they were going to get married.

 

iii.

Of course, then they have to actually plan the thing.

With the amount of people involved (ten) and the number of people they care about who they want to be present (a lot) and the details of the actual ceremony (weird), there is a lot of planning that must be done. They can’t be spontaneous about it, because they all think it needs to be special, even Sanji and Nami.

The first thing they figure out is the actual ceremony itself.

“No kissing,” Luffy declares like a king atop a throne. “It’s gross.”

“Noted,” their scribe (Usopp) nods dutifully and writes it down.

“I think a South Blue style would be most suitable for us,” Robin explains the style to the group. “It’s well-suited to a larger group, like ourselves, and I think the festive nature would suit our tastes as well.”

“How do we, I suppose, ‘tie the knot’?” Jinbe asks. “Without kissing, like Luffy wants. How shall we go about that?”

The Straw Hats pause. They think about it. Then:

“We use our words, like we aren’t total dumbasses,” Sanji concludes. “We just _tell_ each other we’ll be sticking together forever.”

“Like the vows in a usual wedding?” Brook inquires.

“But if they’re replacing the kissing part, they have to be special,” Chopper thinks aloud, tapping a hoof on his cheek. “Maybe we can make them extra long!”

“It doesn’t seem practical to write long vows for everyone.” Nami frowns. She begins counting on her fingers, one, two, three -- “That would be, what? Forty-five different vows? It would take forever.”

Luffy gets An Idea. “Then we each write one set!” he announces with a delighted look on his face. “Like, I write for one of you, and then you write for someone else!”

“And the last person writes for the first?” Usopp clarifies, and Luffy nods.

“It’s not a bad idea,” Sanji concedes.

“I like it,” Franky grins.

“If I must,” Zoro contributes from the side somewhere.

“Then it’s settled,” Robin tells them. And Usopp writes it down.

 

iv.

“How do we know who to write for?” Usopp asks the ceiling in the middle of the night.

“Shut up, Usopp,” Sanji mumbles into his pillow. Brook snores.

“We’ll figure it out in the morning,” Franky says. “Go to sleep.”

Someone hits Usopp in the face with a pillow. He never does find out who.

(They end up drawing names out of a hat.)

 

v.

“Vivi must be there,” Nami says before anyone else can even come up with a response to the question _"who will come?”_

__

“Naturally we’d invite our friends from our hometowns?” Usopp states, though he lilts towards a question.

__

“We should invite Cricket and the monkeys,” Robin suggests. “I’d like to catch up with them.”

__

“How about the pirates from Thriller Bark? Lola and them?” Franky asks, to which Nami lights up with excitement and adds a “seconded”.

__

“Do you think Conis and her dad could make it from the sky island?” Chopper wonders. “Or God? He was nice.”

__

“Coby!” Luffy exclaims once he thinks of him.

__

“Do you think the samurai would come? It would be wonderful to see them again,” Brook thinks aloud.

__

“Of course, we should invite Neptune and his family,” Jinbe adds in.

__

“Smoker,” Zoro says flatly and very seriously.

__

“We can’t invite Marines to our wedding!” Usopp hollers.

__

“It’s a power move.”

__

“That doesn’t make it better!”

__

“We may as well invite them all,” a defeated Sanji sighs. He adds “Smoker (and Tashigi)” to the list. He can hardly squeeze them onto the page it’s so full of names. “You all have to deal with invitations for your own guests, there’s no way I’m letting Nami write all these on her own.”

__

 

__

vi.

__

The day arrives one year after Luffy proposed, after much planning, decision making, and writing of letters.

__

On an obscure island in the East, the family, friends, and occasional enemies of the Straw Hat Pirates gather to celebrate a wedding.

__

Koala reunites with the Fishman Pirates while the former world’s greatest swordsman shakes the hand of a swordsmanship teacher from an East Blue village. Garp greets Neptune and his children with a booming voice and a loud, loud laugh. Tashigi and O-kiku eagerly discuss the named blades of Wano. Kaya looks to be in awe of Kureha, though whether for her skill or her personality or her age is unclear. Lola proposes marriage to Baby 5, who looks sorely tempted to say yes, if the look on her face is any indication. Hancock cries on the shoulder of whichever woman is closest to her; Dorry and Broggy laugh with Hajrudin and give him a pound on the back; Crocus and Rayleigh share a drink; Caimie befriends Cavendish; Dadan weeps on Sabo; Shanks hugs Makino; Cricket, Kureha, Genzo, Gin, Perona, Zeff, Shakky, Bellamy, Rebecca, Ivankov, Law; the list goes on and on and on and on.

__

The event is to take place in an open, grassy field. It’s right beside the ocean, so that the ships belonging to all of the guests surround the massive form of Laboon. There are no chairs of any sort so guests are free to choose sitting or standing. The only sort of infrastructure in the area is a massive table of food set out for the party. (Sanji had prepared most of it with the help of his father and the rest of the Baratie cooks the night before; Pudding and Chiffon helped with the cake, as they once had so long ago.) It’s large enough to feed a dozen giants and then some.

__

And then the time comes.

__

The guests, all clad in the official dress code “whatever you think looks decent enough for a wedding”, settle into place in an almost-ring, facing inward, where a lone figure stands tall.

__

“Welcome, friends, family, fated enemies,” Coby announces (with a little gesture toward Mihawk, being careful not to gesture toward the Marines, Coby wouldn’t want to be considered a pirate sympathizer. People laugh at his little joke about Mihawk. Coby should be a comedian). “I would like to welcome you all to the wedding.”

__

He’s met with a chorus of hoots and cheers and claps. Coby smiles, a little bashful.

__

“Marriage, to many, is a sacred, romantic vow. A promise between lovers to live together and die together,” Coby starts, having clearly practiced this monologue. “Whoever said that that love had to be romantic? There are so many kinds of love that exist, and surely, can’t the bond between friends be celebrated eternally?”

__

The guests holler again; someone lets out a _whoop_. It might be Bon-chan, but it’s hard to tell exactly.

__

“So today, our dear friends will be marrying each other.” Coby pauses, thinks, and opens his mouth again. He starts improvising. “But in a way, _we_ will be marrying them, too. They asked us to come and we came because they wanted each and every one of us here. They love _us_ , too. We’re celebrating not only the eternal bond of love between the Straw Hat Pirates, but between us, and between each other.”

__

Rebecca smiles, wipes a tear from her eye, and throws her arms around Shirahoshi’s finger. In the sea beside, Laboon sings.

__

“Without further ado,” Coby says, “let us bring them in.” He makes an awkward, swooping gesture and they come.

__

The Straw Hats each walk to the center through the audience from different points behind the guests, as if they’d materialized from nothing (when they’d actually just been sitting behind Oimo and Kashi and stealthily found their places). They’re all dressed well; not so well that they look or feel stiff or uncomfortable, but just on the better side of “decent enough for a wedding”. Nami is bedecked in flowers; Sanji has a bow tie and has slicked all of his hair back, exposing two eyebrows; Robin wears a long, flowing sundress that blows in the wind; Franky has conceded to wearing shorts but his shirt is still open. Luffy has a necklace of flowers around his neck and no shoes on. Zoro’s wearing a white dress from Wano. Usopp has a flower tucked behind his ear.

__

Once they arrive at the center, they all stand in a ring around Coby. He looks at their faces; overall there’s a calm, determined anticipation in their expressions. He feels woefully underprepared.

__

“So, uh,” he stammers, barely remembering his cue, “how sure are you that you want this?”

__

“I’m sure,” the Straw Hats chorus back.

__

“Are you sure you’re sure?” Coby asks again, a little louder and a little more confident.

__

“I’m sure I’m sure!” they call back, more forcefully.

__

“How sure are you?” Coby asks one more time, approaching a shout.

__

“I’m surer than death!” they cry.

__

Robin smiles, and then Luffy smiles, and then they’re all smiling. She takes Franky’s hand, who takes Brook’s, and soon they’re all standing there in the middle of a field, holding hands and smiling and about to be _married_. Wild.

__

Usopp’s hand is trembling. Sanji squeezes it.

__

“I understand that you all have prepared some vows?” Coby prompts, and he steps out of the ring (having to awkwardly squeeze past Franky’s shoulders. For his part, Franky lifts his arm up).

__

Luffy and Jinbe face each other, standing tall but not rigid. Luffy is still smiling, but he’s sweating and he can’t quite make eye contact. Someone in the audience is crying. It’s probably Garp.

__

“Jinbe,” Luffy begins, with a deep breath. His straw hat hangs off his neck and bumps against his shoulder in the wind. “You steer us - you steer me. You turned me towards the future when I wanted to die. You’ve taught me so much about being a leader and a person and I could never, ever, thank you enough, and I’m so, so glad that you finally joined us -”

__

“I only put it off a little while,” Jinbe teases quietly, weakly, watery.

__

“Because you’re so wonderful, and I love you so so much,” Luffy babbles now, tears falling down his face. He sniffles. “I’m so lucky. I’m so lucky. Stay with me forever.”

__

Jinbe hugs Luffy, enveloping him in his large arms, and then Luffy is released. Jinbe turns to his right, to Nami.

__

“Nami,” Jinbe starts with a small smile on his large face, “When I first met you, I was a little frightened of you.”

__

This is met with a sharp laugh from just about everyone, the loudest probably being Genzo’s guffaw. Nami breaks eye contact with Jinbe to glare at her father figure briefly.

__

“I was scared of you because I was scared to admit to myself what I had done, and here you were, the victim of my failings. After I made my peace with the past, I was allowed to see you as more than your trauma, and the young woman I have gotten to know since then has been truly incredible. Your intelligence, kindness, and fortitude are more than most, and your assuredness of your abilities is commendable. I would trust no other navigator more to tell me where to go, as much as you would entrust me with the deepest doubts you feel. At turn after turn, I have been amazed by you and your brilliance, and I ask today that you stay with me forever.”

__

“How’m I supposed to follow that up?” Nami sniffles and weeps. She leaps into Jinbe’s arms, who holds her tightly and sets her down.

__

For Nami, Usopp rises. She clears her throat weakly, and he adjusts a flower behind her ear.

__

“Usopp, I once thought I would be doomed to sail with absolute morons until they killed me or - more likely - _I_ killed _them_.” She pauses when someone laughs. She would recognize Nojiko in death. “In this crew, you were my very first friend, because while I worked alongside Luffy and Zoro and I followed their pace, I _understood_ you. I saw you and I knew that you were clever and sneaky like me, in your own naive, sheltered way.”

__

“Thanks,” Usopp murmurs a little sardonically. Nami shushes him.

__

“There have been times when I’ve needed to encourage you, and times when you’ve inspired me, times when you created a party trick when I asked for a weapon and you ended up giving me a tool I could never have even dreamed of. I am at my best when I am with you, Usopp. So I want you to stay with me forever.”

__

He holds her hands in his and genuinely, honestly says, “thanks”. He isn’t shaking anymore.

__

Usopp spins to look at Sanji, and it’s Sanji’s turn to be serenaded (or whatever the verbal equivalent of a serenade is). He looks Sanji in the eyes, silent for a moment. Sanji quirks an eyebrow, and Usopp laughs.

__

“Sorry! Sorry,” he giggles. “It’s just different seeing both of your eyebrows. Sorry.”

__

Sanji huffs and rolls his eyes.

__

“Okay, I’m ready,” Usopp gathers himself. “Okay. Sanji, you are by far the most reliable, consistent member of this crew and for that I have to thank you, because we would be dead without you so many times over. You feed us every day, you put all of your heart into keeping us strong and the giving alone fills you up and that’s something I could never do. I’m too selfish. I love that you’re strong, because it gives you the power to be kind. I love the strategic side of you, and the side of you that will play with me, whether that’s chess or a wrestling match on deck. You have been one of the most forgiving of my failures, from the very first instant I make mistakes you keep the peace, and you are such, such, a good friend. Sanji, I want you to stay with me forever.”

__

Sanji hides his face in his hands, then he reaches out with one hand and pushes Usopp lightly on the shoulder.

__

“C’mon,” he mumbles. “Shut up already.”

__

And Usopp laughs and does so.

__

Next, it’s Sanji’s turn to talk about Brook. The skeleton draw himself up to his full height with a proud little wiggle of his shoulders. When they’re standing this close, it makes Sanji feel like a child.

__

“I appreciate you, I guess,” Sanji begins awkwardly, “because you take to everything with such a stupid enthusiasm, even when it makes you look rude, it’s like you’ve got no body to trap all the passion in and it has to go somewhere, right? So it goes out, in your soul, in your music, in the way you laugh and speak.” Sanji laughs under his breath. “You’re like, bizarre, but so self-assured, you know it and you _own_ it and I wish I could be that confident. You're kind of wise, too, which is weird because you’re a two and a half meter tall skeleton with an afro, a violin, and a whale, and I wouldn’t think of any of those things as being particular traits of a wise person. I don’t know. I think I appreciate all that about you. You’ve got a perspective that comes in death. So, I guess, please stay with me forever.”

__

Brook puts his bony, fingered hands on either side of Sanji’s face, turning him upward to make eye contact (although Brook has no eyes).

__

“Sorry, I didn’t really practice,” Sanji mumbles. It’s hard to speak when Brook is squishing his face like that.

__

“Sanji, I could never mind,” Brook reassures him. Sanji smiles.

__

Brook turns to Franky’s titanic metallic form, as wide as he is tall. He flashes a grin at Brook, who offers back a thumbs up. It is decidedly less impressive than the thumbs up Franky’s crate-sized hands could make, but Brook pays this no mind. He clears his throat.

__

“You and me we’re self-made men who aren’t men anymore; we died, we cried, we whined and sighed and still we rose once more,” Brook recites. His vows sound like poetry, or lyrics to a melody-less song. “A train I’ve heard is what befell your body turn asunder; you lived, your form rebuilt by hand, vessel filled with wonder. I, once reborn, had come to see this blessing as a curse; but you showed me that I should see, you clearly have it worse.”

__

Franky releases a single bark of laughter, his eyes all scrunched up from the width of his grin. He shakes his head but allows Brook to continue.

__

“I languished in the fog of years, I longed to see the sun: my body cold, my soul is old, I really just felt done. So say farewell to humankind, that journey’s at an end, and bone and metal surely find they are eternal friends.”

__

Brook stops speaking for a moment, and then adds, “Forever is a very long time, Franky, but I’d like it best if you stayed with me for all of it.”

__

Franky bites his lip, wipes at the tears pouring down his face, and nods.

__

Robin gracefully cleans Franky’s tears from his face with a handkerchief. Her face, turned to Franky, is calm, almost disturbingly so. He can’t read her emotions when she looks like That.

__

“So you and I almost died together,” Franky starts bluntly.

__

“Cutting to the chase, are we?” Robin teases.

__

“Yep,” he confirms. “So we almost died together, and that was wild. I think I got to see a lot of you that day. Clearly being dragged to our executions together is a great way to bond, because I learned how delicate and strong you are. You’ve carried the weight of the world on your shoulders for twenty years and you finally shared the weight. You’re like, some kind of rose,” Franky muses. “You might get picked but you’ll sure as hell put up a fight. Y’know, with the thorns and stuff. And then, of course, being in the crew with you I learned how resourceful you are. Really, all-around, you’re a pretty super woman, Nico Robin, and I want you to stay with me forever _super_ bad.”

__

“Thank you, Franky,” she says, and meets Chopper’s eyes on her other side.

__

Robin and Chopper stand facing each other, Chopper in Heavy Point to match Robin’s height. She smiles at him lovingly and she touches his face with a hand, pinching him on the nose. He laughs.

__

“Chopper, I have never met a creature - human, reindeer, or otherwise - quite like you. When I met you, you hid from me, but you were so _trusting_ , so kind, and that hasn’t changed. Things have gotten hard, but you have stayed the same Chopper. You have stayed kind. Your compassion for others leaves me, selfish me, to wish I was more like you, because you share your light with the world and I only want mine to myself.”

__

“Robin, no!” Chopper protests, even though he’s crying. He tries to drag a strand of snot back into his face.

__

“I truly believe I would not be the Nico Robin I am today if I had not spent long sleepless nights with you, reading in the lounge or letting you teach me about medical science; not because of the things I learned, but because you made me a little softer, a little kinder. Chopper, I want you to stay with me forever.”

__

As Robin finishes, Chopper flings himself toward her in Brain Point, sobbing loudly. Robin pats him on the head, with a “there there”.

__

Robin sets him back down on the ground, and sniffling Chopper, still tiny, turns to face Zoro, who kneels on the ground to match him.

__

“You make me feel safe,” Chopper tells him. “I used to be scared of you but that was before I realized how nice you were. You were willing to help me wash my back, and you learned how to keep the infirmary organized the way I like it even though I didn’t ask you to, and you started carrying me around the desert and taking care of me even though you didn’t have to do that, either. You’re so cool and strong and I look up to you for a lot of things!” Chopper’s crying again. “And I can’t imagine being a pirate without you being there, so tell me you’ll stay with me forever, okay!!”

__

Zoro reaches out and pats Chopper on the head.

__

“There’s no reason to cry,” he tells him. Chopper nods, still crying, and Zoro hugs him. After a moment, Chopper peels himself off of Zoro, who stands.

__

And then it comes to Zoro to speak to Luffy, and complete the circle.

__

“I already made a vow,” Zoro begins steadily, “that I will never lose again.”

__

Luffy nods.

__

“That means you too, Pirate King,” he finishes. “You’re staying with me forever.”

__

Luffy flings his arms around Zoro, hardly able to contain himself and his joy, and the two crash to the ground. Coby stands again.

__

“The ink?” Coby asks. Carue (in a little bow tie) delivers a tiny pillow with a few markers on it. Coby graciously takes the markers and hands them out to the Straw Hats.

__

Luffy, first, reaches out to Zoro on his left and draws a shaky “X” on his forearm. Zoro puts one on Chopper, and around it goes, until Jinbe puts a precise little “x” by Luffy’s wrist, each Straw Hat returning a mark of love to the one who spoke to them.

__

“I now pronounce you… pirates, I suppose,” Coby announces, “and it’s time to party!”

__

With that, a roar of happiness erupts: human cheers and claps and stomps on the ground, and the jovial chirping of a scarred island whale. Luffy scoops up his crew in his arms, squishing them all together so that Nami’s flowers fall to the ground, crushed and forgotten, and Usopp’s sweat kind of stinks and makes Chopper sneeze and Brook ends up in the middle because he’s so small and Luffy loves them all so, so much.

__

The rest of the day is lost to laughter and love. In the blur of the festivities, they'll forget how Shanks got smashed and started a conga line, they'll forget exactly how many raucous renditions of "Bink's Sake" were lead by Brook, they'll forget how long they've celebrated and wonder later why their bodies are so sore. But they'll remember the feast fit for giants and dwarves alike, they'll remember the sting of Law tattooing the X marks onto their arms permanently, they'll remember the exact moment that Usopp laughed so hard he threw up. And the rest isn't that important.

__

And in the morning, they are married, and Luffy finds he hates marriage a lot less.

__

**Author's Note:**

> this is the longest thing i've written in years, and it's something i've put a lot of myself into. as an aroace, i relate a lot to luffy and i find myself projecting my own experiences onto him. i've had a weird, long history with feelings about marriage in particular so naturally id find myself writing about luffy getting married (im just surprised it took me this long, it's been almost 6 years since i got into op).
> 
> some notes on things:  
> 1\. zoro's vow to luffy is, i think, not very clear. i thought about clarifying it in text but i realized that the perhaps confusing, underexplained train of thought suited zoro better than what i maybe originally intended. zoro's an actions speak louder than words type of person after all. what he's getting at is this: the promise he made to luffy post-mihawk duel - that he'll never lose again - doesn't just refer to losing battles, it also refers to losing luffy as a person in his life (and by extension the rest of the crew).  
> 2\. im not 100% happy with how brook's vow to franky turned out but i dont want to fix it, rip. what he's trying to express is that he and franky both were human, "died", and came back as something else and having to put themselves back together again. this is more obvious in a line i cut so that i could adapt the first half of it into the poem: "you and me, we're self-made men who aren't men anymore, you understand me in ways no other man alive would".  
> 3\. i had to cut a line about caimie befriending shanks, but can you imagine. power friendship. amazing.  
> 4\. originally i wanted to include a part about morgans and the world economic journal losing their minds about the wedding but i ended up deciding it wouldn't fit. just know that they're freaking out and morgans is calling it "big news" a whole lot.  
> 5\. title is from ["another night on mars" by the maine](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t75iai3jYi4) which is a very straw hats song tbh!!
> 
> thanks for reading! feel free to come visit me on tumblr, at one of my many blogs: [robean-chan for op content](https://robean-chan.tumblr.com) or [luffy-is-aroace](https://luffy-is-aroace.tumblr.com)


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